Beach volleyball is a variant of indoor volleyball, which was invented in 1895 by William G. Morgan. Beach volleyball most likely originated in 1915 on Waikiki Beach in Hawaii, at the Outrigger Canoe Club. According to a 1978 interview of an Outrigger Canoe Club member, George David “Dad” Center put a net up there, and the first recorded game of beach volleyball took place. In 1920, new jetties in Santa Monica, California created a large sandy area for public enjoyment, planting the seed for beach volleyball development in that region. The first permanent nets began to appear, and people soon began playing recreational games on public parts of the beach and in private beach clubs. Eleven such beach clubs appeared in the Santa Monica area, beginning in late 1922. The first inter-club competitions were staged in 1924.
Despite its increased popularity in the 1980s and 1990s, American beach volleyball suffered setbacks. In 1998, the American women’s professional tour the WPVA and the American professional men’s tour the AVP filed for bankruptcy, plagued by problems as a player-run organization. In 2001, the AVP reemerged as a for-profit, publicly traded company that combined the men’s and women’s professional tours, with equal prize money for both sexes. After filing for bankruptcy again in 2010, the AVP re-emerged under new leadership in 2013 as the main professional beach volleyball tour in the United States.
Beach volleyball has become a global sport, with international competition organized by the FIVB. Brazil and the USA are dominant, with 20 of the 30 Olympic medals awarded to date between them, and 16 of the 20 gold and silver medals. But the sport’s popularity has spread to the rest of the world as well.